Forum:Noncanon VS Non-Canon

I saw that there existed both cats that have Noncanon, Non-canon and Non-Canon in their name. (examples: Category:Noncanon Men[former link] and Category:Non-Canon Locations[former link]). With of these two is the good one? --Amroth

Wiktionary says they're bothcorrect ("Noncanon" and "Non-canon"). I personally don't like the "Non-Canon", but I'm neutral on the others. -- Ederchil(Talk/Contribs/Edits) 10:20, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

I would be content to settle for ‘Non-canon’. Like Ederchil, I feel ‘Non-Canon’ to be wrong. I do accept ‘Noncanon’ would be correct as well, but it doesn’t feel any more appropriate to me. — Mithrennaith 19:59, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

I think "Non-Canon" is probably wrong, too (I was taught that in hyphenated words you only capitalise the initial word, unless the subsequent parts are capitalised in their own right, e.g. "Middle-earth" but "Saxe-Coburg-Gotha"). I definitely prefer "Non-canon", and these "Noncanon" categories has irritated me immensely for some time. --Mith(Talk/Contribs/Edits) 11:50, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

I was taught that it would be Middle-Earth and Non-Canon, but I learnt that for Dutch so it could be wrong in English. --Amroth

It would not always be true even in Dutch. There is no reason why niet-canon would get a capital in Dutch. In English it’s also ‘non-canon’ — the only reason we’re discussing ‘Non-canon’ vs. ‘Noncanon’ and ‘Non-Canon’ here is that category names always have to start with a capital initial.

Midden-aarde is a special case, not altogether amenable to rules, because of the circumstances under which it arose. Under Dutch rules it would have to be Middenaarde — the hyphen is there only because the translator of Tolkien’s works slavishly followed the English form of ‘Middle-earth’ and it became fixed as a specialist term. But ‘Middle-earth’ gets the hyphen only to avoid a clash of vowels. ‘Middle-Earth’ is incorrect, because there is no ‘Earth’ in ‘Middle-earth’: it’s derived from Anglo-Saxon middangeard — litterally ‘middlegarth’ or ‘middleyard’, compare Norse Midgård. So, via Middle-English Middelerde we get ‘Middleearth’, except that would not be pronounced the right way — hence the need for the hyphen.

So Midden-Aarde is likewise incorrect, Middenaarde would be the correct form — as Mittelerde is in German, not Mittel-Erde — and as there is there no clash of vowels in Middenaarde, no hyphen would be needed; and it might even be more appropriate to use Middelaarde, or even Middelgaarde. But Midden-aarde got ossified, and we are stuck with it, unless and until we can convince the Dutch publishers to correct it — and even then the term has become so common and widespread that it wouldn’t be wise to do more than drop the hyphen. — Mithrennaith 02:40, 17 September 2010 (UTC)